It's alive - the Taki-Tiki Rwy!

Well, at least off life support and on its own.  I'm talking about the Trans-Tropics Rwy. layout.  It started out with the outer loop worked well.  The inner track complex, however, was a different story. I spent a good part this evening debugging it.  It didn't surrender its' secrets willingly.

There were two problems, as it turned out.  First, there was a short on the inner track complex.  It turned out that I had crossed the feed wires to the loop on the lower module in the drawing.  I don't understand how that happened - I was SO careful.  Yeah, right.  At least the wires went to a screw terminal block, and were easy to reverse.  That was the easy part.

Then, there was a dead section of track in an area where the power routing turnouts should have handled it.  After a time of close inspection and snooping with a voltmeter, the problem was isolated.  One of the Tomix track joints on the bottom loop was missing a joiner between rail sections. Once that was replaced, power was flowing to the right places, with the right polarity. Yea!  I'm sure glad I got some new Tomix joiners with my last order of track from Japan.






A Bandai Shorty locomotive was test run around the tracks.  It made it, but not easily.  I expected as much, since it has been sitting in the garage for a long time as I slowly made progress.  The track is very much in need of a thorough cleaning.  So, tomorrow, the track cleaning,  and then address some rough spots.  The track pieces are connected properly.  I inspected them closely, and will again tomorrow.  I'm thinking, though, that the light Bandai (4-wheel) locomotives are going to need a really tweaked track. A quick first look before shutting down tonight suggests that the turnout frogs may be a bit high, and a little judicious filing could be in order.

I think trying a Bachmann MDT switcher could be worth while.  It's a 6-wheel loco, but I'm expecting the slightly longer wheelbase will handle the 103mm (4") and 140mm (5.5") radius curves in the inside areas. More fun for tomorrow, I hope.

Even so, I'm hoping to shoot a little video of the layout in operation over the weekend. 

A while back (in my SouthWest Traker days, pre-2016) I made a little box that plugs into the Kato connectors between the throttle and the track.  It has a 15-0-15v meter, and a 1-0-1a meter.  It was very useful, but I wish the ammeter was 0.25-0-0.25a in scale.  That would be more useful with the low current draw of today's locomotives.  And, yes they are good ol' swingin' needle analog meters.  I love 'em.

Where did the time go?

Here it is, mid October already!  It seems as if it was early September, just yesterday.  Oh, well.  A few doctor appointments, burning heat (too hot for the ban or garage for work,) vehicle issues, yada-yada.  Gets in the way, life does.

Some more building kits is in progress.  I have a pair of the Grandt Line Reese Street kits.  Each has parts for three small houses, plus two sizes of lean-to's to be used however is desired.  While they can't help looking a bit similar, there is enough to make each unique.  So, they are spread over the work table.  And, there are enough left over panels to use in other kit-bashing, down the road.  So, that's some progress.

I did finally test the new layout.  The outer loop is fine, but the inside areas have a short somewhere.  With 70's F in the forecast, and several tasks done, maybe I can get out to them this week.  No promises. Just today, I wasted ~$1,000 of good train money. Spent it on dental bills and tires for the truck. Not a penny for the railroad. Sob.

I was looking for something else (yet another honey-do project) when I came across where I am storing some On30 items.  So, now, that's another thing to distract me . . . not a hard thing to do these days.

So, that's about as far as it goes for now.

Track Progress

Well, very slowly.  I missed most of this week with family issues.  The worst one was Thursday.

We got up early, drove 350+miles to west Texas to visit Cindy's mom in a nursing home.  She kept begging us to send her husband, Jack, to get her and take her home.  He died in the summer of 2017.  Alzheimer's is a nasty condition.

After about an hour and a half, we left and drove back home.  Recovery Friday was a total washout.  Today (Saturday, I think?) I was able to work on the modules.

Note the end module on the left.  It can't be wired as a "normal" TTrak module in this scenario.  The Inside track must be the same polarity as the outside, as it's not "Inside" but rather a passing siding for the "Outer."  However, in other setups, it may be a "normal" end module.  So, I had to revise the wiring and add a terminal block and wiring to the track. In that way, it could enable the inner track polarity to be reversed, depending on the setup.  Not switchable, but swapping connections on the block at setup time.  If I just hadn't put the next module in there.  I never intended to do so, but it just got in there anyway . . . and it does look good there. Oh, well.

Then, there was a spot that kept bouncing the locos pretty bad.  I had missed getting the coupler on the rail properly.  Fixed that, and the power feed there, too.  I've had an SD-40 (Conrail Blue) and a B-23-7 (UP yellow) running reliable laps for over an hour (one at a time - DC for now, DCC later on the outer loop.)  I still need to to the "sweetening" on a pair of Kato #4's to hopefully end the occasional picking-the-points problem.

The inter-connected inner loops seem to have a short somewhere.  Since they span four modules, with the special Shorty loops inside them all interconnected, I'm sure it'll be easy to trouble shoot. NOT!  I'll spent the rest of the weekend thinking them over, and see what happens next week.

Oh, well, it's a lot closer to being good than ever before, track wise.

S/W Joe

WA5UNK

Half gone - where?

Oh, man, September is slipping by with not much modeling to show for it.  When I do get time to sit at the workbench, I'm generally feeling too tired to do much of anything.

I did finish three buildings.  They are the AMB_Laser Kit LK-605 Sonny's Shack (2-pack per kit) and the Randy Brown Models N-102 Fire Station.

The bright one on the left is to be a surf and scuba shop on the beach, hence the bright colors.  It "needs" an HO beach dude, on a surfboard, on the roof.
Remember, this is N, so HO is approx twice life size.  That should be a good size
for an advertising sign, eh?

It's sibling, in the middle, and the RB kit on the right haven't been assigned a specific purpose, just yet.  But they will be some sort of businesses.  Something for the beach.

On the bench now is the start of two more RB models, N-105P Paco's Tacos and N-905 Tiny's Diner.  No progress picture, as they are still piles of parts.  Here's the factory pictures: 

Yep, they'll also be on the beach modules.

I'm thinking that some small houses will be needed, and a couple of the 3-packs of Grandt_Line 300-8023 Reese St. Row Houses should be good.  That's six places, with optional additions to make them all unique.

Okay, change of subject here.  Another of my malingeringly slow projects is a Tam Valley Train Shuttle.  No longer available, it's a DCC exerciser for locomotives.  A loco can be set to any 2-digit address, and it'll be shuttled back and forth on a linear track.  How it works is clever.  After being told that such a circuit couldn't be done in DCC, they set out and did it.  It's a truly neat, unique product.  It handles a 99 possible 2-digit addresses, no programming.












I'm glad I bought one, along with the optional 2X16 display.  With that, it can accommodate locos with 4-digit addresses.  The address is programmed into the unit (it's trivial, even I can do it!)  I don't remember right off, but I think there's a limit of 16 of the 4-digit addresses. Don't quote me on that.

Any way, it's a quality little unit, with its' own DCC generation, so the only other thing needed is the supplied wall-wart. I'm putting mine in a small wood box, and mounting an ESU decoder tester on top.  All in all, a convenient stunt box/test station. 

My tester is a slightly older model board, but it looks quite similar.

So, I guess I am getting a little bit done, it just doesn't seem like it some times.  Oh, well . . .

With August Winding Down . . .

As September approaches, it's been HOT in north Texas - about 102F today (about 8-10F above "normal,) with the Temperature Humidity Index over 110F.  The morning started too hot to endure it even in the garage. So, I've retreated to the "office" (her name for a spare bedroom that'll never have a bed while we're here!) and worked on drawings and sketches to settle how to wire the loop modules.  I think that's done, but will have to wait for cooler time to implement it.  That may be tomorrow, IF the promised cool front arrives and does its job.

When not thinking about wiring, and doing chores around the house, I've started on a couple structure kits.  I have a good stock that I've accumulated over the years, and now seems to be a good time to start on them.  I'm thinking that as I finish one, I'll make a "blind" reach into the bin and whatever comes out will be the next build.  It should make for a fun fall season.

Here is what I've done so far (none are finished).

The bright one on the left is to be a beach business, "Big Jim's Surf and Scuba Shop."  I'm wanting to find an HO beach bum to mount up top on a surf board.
An HO 6' figure looks about 12' in an N scale setting. :)

The other two don't have a specific use in mind yet.  Eventually, when finding their way onto a specific module, something will occur.  It usually does.

It's a long, hot summer . . .

I'm not getting as much done as I'd like, with the heat and I not going together very well.  Any work on the modules has to be done mornings, along with mowing the grass, etc. Even so, the junction has the track down and ready to be wired with track power drops on all three lines.  The gap in the straight section, a non-Kato length, has been closed by the simple expedience of taking a slightly longer piece of track (I used a 124mm section) and cutting it to fit, 101mm nominally.

The single module, with a short siding, will be tied down next. Then, the wiring on it will be done, too.  I'm learning that most (all?) modules should have power drops on them.  One never knows when they could be needed in a future setup, eh?

Work on structures is starting, albeit slowly. Very slowly. As they progress, pictures will follow.

As a running layout, I've settled on using a pair of the double-deep modules to complete the loop of the Trans-Tropics Rwy.  Here's the configuration:

The two modules on the left are the "borrowed" pieces, an end cap and a "C" configuration module.  Overall, about eight feet in length. Don't put too much stock in the scenery there, I just grabbed the little available in AnyRail to keep it from looking so bare, so "plywood plains." 

This has been exported into TrainPlayer (I'm running 7.0) and I tried it out for an evening.  A passenger train was set racing (indicated 40 mph!) around the outside loop. The inside was set up with a mixed freight, plodding along at 20 mph with its' eight cars and caboose. My freights have cabooses. Period.

After running a few laps, I started playing with the various routing options with the two ovals and the TTrak inner main.  eventually, I switched the eight freight cars onto the two sidings and the four yard tracks. That left the loco (an SW-1200 class switcher) and the caboose to finish the evening, running easy.

The TTrak outer main had a steam loco and three cars, a baggage and two Pullman coaches.  They looped steadily, with an occasional variation to use the passing siding at the left end, just for variety.  Hmmm, the next time, I may park another train over there and alternate which one is making laps.

I could also do the same with the inside line and ovals, but I'll try to not get too carried away with it.  After all, tonight was the first time I've successfully run two trains at once in TrainPlayer.  It does it just fine, me, not so much, yet.

A bit more progress. I guess.

I've made a little more progress on several fronts, I guess.  I just can't seem to pick one and "just do it."

I have the track laid out for the two modules that followed me home from the Build-A-Thon, a junction (which I had ordered) and a single (an orphan I adopted.)

With the junction, nothing fancy at all on the track-work,  Right now, I'm leaning towards simple, rural scenes.  It'll have to play out to see just what will actually be there. Yep, I've got a piece of track to cut to fit, but that's an easy-peasy thing to do.

 

I am going to have a simple siding on the single module, using a Kato #4 and 186mm straight track.  Nothing fancy here. I'm thinking of building a dirt mound on the end of the siding, since there's not enough room for a bumper.  I have done that before, and I like how it can look.  It may even have an inset pocket to clear the coupler.  

Years ago I did a module like this (now long gone, R.I.P.) and liked it.  So, now's a good time to do another.  As to what's on the siding, I don't know just yet.  I'm waiting for the module "to tell me what it wants to be."  I could say the same about the junction as well, but it is "whispering" a bit louder to me. Kinda.

About that orphan thing.  As the guys were cutting out the pieces of MDF for the various ordered modules (about two dozen, I think) there were scrap sections remaining that generated several unordered single modules - orphans, as it were.  This one just seemed to jump into my hand, so I brought it home like a lovable, lost puppy.

Last for today, there's the fourth module of the Trans-Tropics Rwy.  This is the connector for running the two loop modules end-to-end, rather than the 180º configuration in the previous post.

Like the other two modules, the track isn't fastened down just yet.  For one thing, the temperature and humidity are very high today, and the garage is just too miserable to do any work.  Also, there's a bit of indecision on the connector.  I want a grade crossing across the twin main lines, but I do NOT like the new style KATO track pieces.  The old style more fits what I like, so I'm going to have to go another way.  One of the Blair Line Wood Grade Crossings may just fit the bill. And look better, too.  I must go box-diving to see it I may have one, somewhere.

Y'know, the Blair Line 077 Wooden Truck Dump Kit may be what the single is wanting. Hmmm . . .